Podcast Hosting

This feature is perhaps the most exciting …

In just a few clicks, we can insert audio clips at the beginning, middle or end of all your episodes to-date, or selected episodes.

So for example, if you have an upcoming event or conference you want to advertise to all your audiences, we can insert an advert for this into every single episode you have published so far. So no matter which episodes listeners download, they will hear that advert. Once the event is over, we simply delete or replace the clip, which also can be done in a few clicks.

The monthly price includes me inserting the content, but it doesn’t include the costs for producing that content – so making the advert would be charged extra.

IAB is the ‘Interactive Advertising Bureau’ which sets international standards for measuring podcast performance.

Your IAB-compliant statistics will include

• Number of downloads
• Unique listeners
• Listening apps used
• Listening devices used
• Audience locations (country level)
• Compare performance between different episodes (in terms of downloads following release)

Are you sick of posting each episode twice? Once on your media host, and again on your website?

Captivate.fm’s WordPress plugin means it is possible to syncronise each of your podcast episodes to your WordPress-powered website, and vice versa.

The plugin automatically creates a single page which lists all episodes published so far. By clicking on an episode, you are taken to a dedicated page for that specific episode.

And the overall design of your website doesn’t change, so it will remain on-brand – and the created webpages should work in any theme.

You can see a working example of this by clicking here.

The plugin should work across all WordPress.org sites, and on WordPress.com Creator or Entrepreneur plans.

Note that it will be up to your web developer to install and activate the WordPress plug in on the site. I can provide the API codes to authenticate the syncronisation of your show to your site.

Captivate.fm allows users to upload transcripts directly to their website, which is good news for the reliability of episode transcript tags contained within the RSS feed.

In practice, this means that it is easier for listeners to access the transcript for each episode on their podcast app – and as it is a custom transcript, it will be more accurate than one that is auto-generated by the podcast app itself.

Note that the hosting fee doesn’t include my time generating the transcript. You can choose between an auto-generated transcript (that you correct yourself) or one human-corrected by me when you commission me to produce your show.

Having a transcript for each episode really helps with accessibility and also is a win for SEO – Search Engine Optimisation – meaning it’ll be easier for people to find your show.

It also means that podcast apps that support dynamic captions can be configured more accurately. At the moment, the main apps that support this are Apple Podasts and Spotify, however Spotify prioritises podcasts that are hosted natively on their platform. You can see an example of dynamic captions on Apple Podcasts by clicking here.

I can give you multiple log-ins for different staff members so that you can check in on your podcast any time you like.

The level of access/permissions each staff member has is up to you, ranging from simply being able to check analytics to being able to publish episodes and edit show notes.

Yes, and I’ll do this for no charge.

Yes, this is included in the monthly/annual fee.

I will upload the MP3 file, and show notes and the transcript. The show notes will need to be provided by you and I’ll copy and paste them into the relevant section. The transcript will either need to be provided by you or I can create this for an additional fee.

If the WordPress plugin is active, anything I upload and publish on the media host should syncronise and be published on your website at the same time.

I will transfer your podcast to another provider of your choosing, and set up a 301 redirect on Captivate.fm so that your listeners don’t notice.

Note that there will be a charge to do the transfer.

Nothing lasts for ever, and I realise that there is always the possibility you decide to stop your show at some point in the future, yet still want the catalogue to be available for people to listen to… In that situation you may not want to be paying ongoing podcast hosting fees.

In this event, I could transfer your show to a free provider (assuming that there are still free providers at the time of the transfer) and set up a 301 redirect on Captivate.fm.

Note that free providers will have a far smaller feature set and any active Dynamic Content will be burnt permanently into the episodes which are transferred (although we can be careful to remove all this before we do the transfer)

Note that there would be a charge for doing this transfer.

Prices are correct at time of writing. For updated prices please click the relevant link.

• Red Circle: £14.83 per month or £133.44 per year – latest prices here
• Transistor.fm: £37.08 per month or £363.42 per year – latest prices here
• Buzzsprout: £14.09 per month or £147.59 per year – latest prices here
• Note that unlike the above providers, I will upload each new episode to the podcast host as part of the monthly/annual fee (see below for more info)
• Also note that ‘comparible feature set’ means Dynamic Content Insertion (see below), however may not include other features such as WordPress.org integration.

My intention is to offer this service at below market rates so that I can pass on cost savings to my clients. However, if you can find comparible like-for-like hosting plans out there at a lower price, please do contact me.

I am purposely offering this hosting service at what I believe are below-market rates to pass on cost savings to my clients as a ‘thank you’ for working with me.